Contacted by our colleagues from Knack, Geersman explains his method. “”In fact, the calculation is not very complicated. You take 5% of the current GDP and divide it by the number of households.“
With an estimated GDP of 614.5 billion euros in 2024, including 5%, or 30.725 billion euros, which we then divided by 5,163,139 households (for) the same year according to Statbel, this represents 5,950 euros per cleaning. Gert Peersman’s calculation is therefore both simple and methodologically correct. It is not, as such, not disputed by Yf Reykers.
Two public finance expert economists validate the equivalence Used by Gert Peersman, even if they would have used other points of comparison.
Xavier Deburn, head of the National Bank of Belgium Studies Department, for example, explains that he would have counted by inhabitant than by household: “30 billion euros in spending (5% of 615 billion euros) divided by 11.8 million Belgians, this gives 2600 € per Belgian each year. Another way of calculating, and even better for me is in proportion to the tax revenues from all over the country by counting regions and communities, or around 262 billion euros. And there, these 30 billion euros represent 11.5-12%, so we can say that out of € 100 in taxes, € 11.5-12 will go for the defense in this scenario.“
Benoit Bayenet, professor of public finance at the ULB and the Uliège and president of the Central Council of the Economy, for its part, prefers to count by taxpayer, rather than by household. “”And there, with 9.5 million taxpayers in Belgium, we arrive around € 3000 per Belgian who pays taxes.“
In all cases, reasoning is always the same: divide 5% of GDP by a number of households, inhabitants or taxpayers. In all cases, this is an average estimate which can vary depending on the level of income, for example.
